I’m pleased to now hold my new book on the life of Susannah Spurgeon. As with any book, it is the culmination of a long process. There is something special about opening a box and pulling the book out for the first time.
I’m a visual learner. I am especially helped by envisioning the big picture when reading historical accounts. Thus, I started thinking about how my ancestry lined up with what was happening during Susie Spurgeon‘s lifetime in the mid to late nineteenth century. Looking just to one of my four great grandmothers, I considered my father’s maternal side of the family, I remember hearing great things about the godly character of this particular grandmother of his. I did not even meet my grandmother as she died when I was an infant, so I clearly have no first–hand knowledge of Margaret Meyer, my great grandmother, as she died close to 20 years before I was born.
This is in part why I marvel at friends who are great grandparents to multiple children and are yet active and in their right minds— and even drive those great grandchildren around as needed. Their relationship can be well remembered and in fact cherished by both the great grandparents and the great grandchildren. The Lord did not see fit for me to have that privilege, which may explain why I am eager to know more about the lives, particularly spiritual lives, of my ancestors.
My great grandmother was born close to the time when the Spurgeons’ twins were born and just about 500 miles away in Germany. She emigrated to the American Midwest with her parents when she was very young. Margaret married at age 16 and became a mother at age 17. She had nine children, eight of whom lived to adulthood. She had the potential to welcome a huge number of grandchildren especially compared to Susie Spurgeon, who had two sons. My great grandparents, Gerd and Margaret Meyer celebrated the birth of 47 grandchildren, including my father. I find it particularly interesting that six of their granddaughters were named Margaret. In our day and age, cousins do not usually share the same first name but in this case, even two sisters were named Margaret – – Margaret Minnie and Minnie Margaret! Not one grandson was named Gerd, however. That casts no aspersions on my great grandfather, but it is likely due in part to the fact that Gerd was not on the top of anyone’s list for boy names. I do think Margaret must have been someone very special though to have six granddaughters named after her.
It is fairly common for sons to be named for fathers and grandfathers. Hence, we see lots of Roman numerals after men’s names along with some contrived nicknames like Chip or Skip or Trey, but it is a bit less common for women to be named for ancestors. Having said that, I came to realize that not only did my husband and I name a daughter after her recent ancestors, but so did my parents, my in–laws and my daughter and son in law. So, we may be a bit unusual.
Charles and Susie Spurgeon had eight grandchildren and six lived to adulthood. Son Charles and his wife, Sarah, lived in London with three older daughters, Grace Susie, Dorthea and Constance. They named their fourth child and first son Charles but when that baby tragically died in infancy, they named their second son was Charles as well, after his famous grandfather. Susie was evidently quite pleased to have a namesake as a granddaughter. In a rare book entry in which Susie mentioned her grandchildren, she referred to her eldest grandchild Grace Susie as “Susie.”
I must fight discontentment that my own three grandchildren live six hundred miles away. However, Thomas, the Spurgeon’s other son took a ministry position in New Zealand where he met his future wife and later married and had three children, two of whom survived. Susie did not even meet her daughter–in–law and grandchildren Harold and Vera until after her husband, Charles Spurgeon, had died, and Thomas and his family then moved to London. Thus, a six–hundred–mile distance is put in perspective when considering the 12,000 miles between London and New Zealand!
We can only wonder what son Charles’ four London born grandchildren thought of their grandfather, the prince of preachers, and how much the impact of his massive ministry was evident to them. Grace Susie would have been ten when Charles died and twenty–one when Susie died whereas Baby Charles would have been just a few months old when his grandfather died and about twelve when his grandmother died.
We assume that all six grandchildren had a thriving relationship with their grandmother. We can’t overestimate the impact godly grandparents can have on grandchildren especially when in close proximity, and even at a distance these days with the modern conveniences of travel and communication. When widowed Susie was influencing her grandchildren in the late 19th century, my widowed great grandmother, Margaret, was doing the same in rural Fairbury, Nebraska with six little Margarets of various ages running around. I know little of Margaret Meyer’s specific legacy but was glad to read this statement made about her in the small–town newspaper on the occasion of her 85th birthday. “Much can be said in praise of this lovely lady, especially for her spiritual life where she has given much of her time and support to the work of her Great Master.”
Susie’s direct influence ended with her death at age 71 in 1903. Surprisingly, as I mention in my book, not all descendants grew up in awe of the legendary Spurgeon grandparents. In fact, Susie Cochrane, who is the great–great granddaughter of Charles and Susie through the line of their son Thomas and his son Harold, tells how she started reading Charles Spurgeon on her own as a young adult. She has come to appreciate their ministries in a myriad of ways, including Susie’s writings which are much lesser known. Susannah Spurgeon would be so proud of Susie Cochrane, another namesake, who with her husband is faithfully teaching their own children about our Great God. My dad would be so thrilled to know there’s another little Margaret running around to the delight of her family, who is his great granddaughter—the daughter of my daughter, Katie, whom he adored. By God’s grace, she and all of his other great grandchildren are being raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
What a grand reunion we will have in glory when we can each tie together all the ancestral connections and stand in wonder of how the Lord faithfully knit us together in part by that diligent generational teaching we read about in Deuteronomy 6. I must add that those who are adopted can gladly embrace the rich heritage they possess with their forever family even as they will one day know the full story of from whence they came, all in God’s perfect providence.
What a grand reunion we will have in glory when we can each tie together all the ancestral connections and stand in wonder of how the Lord faithfully knit us together in part by that diligent generational teaching we read about in Deuteronomy 6. I must add that those who are adopted can gladly embrace the rich heritage they possess with their forever family even as they will one day know the full story of from whence they came, all in God’s perfect providence.
How glorious it is to see Psalm 145:4 come to fruition: One generation shall declare your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. Susie beautifully stated her desire to be a godly grandmother in her work, Ten Years of My Life in the Service of the Book Fund, and we will let her have the last word on family ties:
It seems but as yesterday that the father of these two little maidens was my own bonnie baby…. now his babies crow and cry as he once did and make sweet childish music in his house and call me Grandmama! I must teach the dimpled fingers to smooth away the crow’s feet and be as wise and tender a grandmother as the Lord would have me to be.
